Storage network provider ClearSky Data raises $27 Million in Series B

Boston-based global storage network, ClearSky Data, has managed to raise $27 million in a Series B investment round led by Polaris Partners, with a strategic investment from Akamai Technologies.

The round brings total investment in the company to $39 million. Previous investors General Catalyst and Highland Capital Partners also participated in the funding, which ClearSky will use to grow its sales, marketing and operations organizations, and add new points of presence (PoPs) in major metro areas.

What does the funding mean to ClearSky Data? Ellen Rubin, in a blog post, wrote:

“So while we’re excited about the funding – it’s a great validation of the past two years of effort from our team.

“… Of course, we’ll be adding new PoPs to expand our metro coverage and scaling our sales, marketing, operations and support teams. But more important, we’ll be laying the foundation for great customer relationships and deepening our understanding of how to help our customers succeed.”

Dave Barrett, Managing Partner, Polaris Partners, added, “Managing primary storage is a huge and poorly served challenge in the enterprise infrastructure market. Legacy systems have failed to address customer needs and no one has figured out how to leverage the economics and agility of the cloud – until now. ClearSky has addressed this challenge head-on, creating a breakthrough software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering for primary storage.”

While Barrett will join the ClearSky board of directors, Akamai’s VP and CTO, Andy Champagne will join as a board observer.

Champagne added, “ClearSky’s global storage network is the way for enterprises to move their data to the cloud—with the security, performance and availability they need to succeed. At Akamai, we know firsthand how to build a global network that meets the stringent requirements of enterprise customers, and we look forward to working with the ClearSky team to help customers worldwide as they adopt this new approach to enterprise storage.”

The ClearSky global storage network combines primary storage, backup and disaster recovery with on-demand scaling and agility. It automatically caches data – moving cold data to the cloud, keeping warm data in metro-based PoPs within 120 miles of customers, and storing a small portion of hot data on-premises. Customers retain the performance and availability of a local storage array with the comprehensive security, low latency and high availability required for enterprise applications.